Beautiful, fluid and innovative. One of the greatest 8 bit games ever made.
The game looked great... too good to possibly be a C64 game. Surely there's been a mix up and the screens are from the Atari ST version (a much more powerful computer).
The months passed slowly and release dates slipped but eventually i was able to obtain a copy for myself and play it.
The bus-ride home from town was tortuously long. I read and re-read the manual to soak up all the storyline and, more importantly, to try to remember a seemingly endless set of combat moves available to me.
As the game loaded, i was treated to some of the best videogame music ever and when the loading screen finally dispersed, my wait was finally justified.
From the beautiful gardens of Japan to the lavish corridors of the castle, everything about the game screamed 'quality'; doves flew overhead randomly, dragons reared their heads from inside caves and the ninja himself moved fluidly - dispatching his enemies in a variety of realistic ways.
Thousands of games have come and gone since but few of them remain so ingrained in my memory. A true classic.